Cuộc họp công bố kết quả kinh doanh quý 3/2026 của Knowles (KN): Doanh thu tăng 20% khi mảng Thiết bị chính xác dẫn dắt tăng trưởng

Knowles Corporation (NYSE: KN) đã báo cáo doanh thu quý 3/2026 đạt 184 triệu USD, tăng 20% so với cùng kỳ năm trước và vượt mức cận trên của khoảng dự báo. Mảng Thiết bị chính xác (Precision Devices) dẫn dắt đà tăng trưởng, trong khi lượng đơn hàng mạnh mẽ và công suất hạn chế đã định hình triển vọng sơ bộ cho năm 2027 của ban lãnh đạo.

Điểm tin chính

• Doanh thu quý 3 tăng 20% so với cùng kỳ năm trước lên 184 triệu USD. EPS tăng 15% lên 0,38 USD, trong khi dòng tiền từ hoạt động kinh doanh đạt 45 triệu USD.
• Doanh thu mảng Thiết bị chính xác tăng 33% lên 117 triệu USD, nhờ lực cầu trên các thị trường công nghệ y tế (MedTech), quốc phòng, công nghiệp và điện khí hóa.
• Mảng Thiết bị chính xác ghi nhận tỷ lệ đơn hàng trên doanh số (book-to-bill ratio) đạt 1,5 và lượng đơn đặt hàng đạt gần 180 triệu USD. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết các đơn hàng hiện tại đã được lên lịch giao đến hết nửa đầu năm 2027.
• Knowles dự kiến doanh thu quý 4 đạt từ 180 triệu USD đến 190 triệu USD và EPS đạt từ 0,39 USD đến 0,43 USD. Tại mức trung vị, cả hai chỉ số đều tăng 14% so với cùng kỳ năm trước.
• Việc bổ sung công suất trên hầu hết các dòng sản phẩm Thiết bị chính xác dự kiến sẽ bắt đầu đi vào hoạt động từ cuối quý 1/2027 và đạt công suất tối đa trong nửa sau năm 2027.
• Ban lãnh đạo nhìn thấy cơ hội đạt biên EBITDA điều chỉnh 30% trong vòng 2 đến 3 năm tới, nhờ sự mở rộng biên lợi nhuận gộp hàng năm và đòn bẩy hoạt động.

Dữ liệu tài chính trọng yếu

Tất cả các tham chiếu tài chính đều được trình bày trên cơ sở phi GAAP từ các hoạt động liên tục ngoại trừ dòng tiền từ hoạt động kinh doanh, trừ khi có chỉ dẫn khác từ công ty.

Kết quả hoạt động kinh doanh và vận hành

Mảng Thiết bị chính xác

Thiết bị chính xác là động lực tăng trưởng chính. Doanh thu tăng 33% nhờ nhu cầu gia tăng trên cả bốn thị trường đầu ra lớn: công nghệ y tế (MedTech), quốc phòng, công nghiệp và điện khí hóa.

Trong lĩnh vực MedTech, tụ điện màng công suất xung tiếp tục mở rộng thị phần trong các ứng dụng máy phá rung tim và xạ trị. Tụ điện gốm đã giành được các hợp đồng thiết kế mới trong thiết bị chẩn đoán hình ảnh y tế thế hệ mới và thiết bị cấy ghép.

Nhu cầu quốc phòng vẫn duy trì mạnh mẽ đối với bộ lọc RF, tụ điện màng và tụ điện gốm sử dụng trong đạn dược và truyền thông. Trên thị trường công nghiệp, tụ điện gốm và cụm tụ điện đã mở rộng ứng dụng trong máy phát plasma dùng cho thiết bị bán dẫn.

Lượng đơn hàng đạt gần 180 triệu USD, mang lại tỷ lệ đơn hàng trên doanh số là 1,5. Số liệu này bao gồm một đơn hàng bộ lọc RF trị giá 15 triệu USD cho khách hàng quốc phòng đã được công bố trước đó, dự kiến giao hàng trong 36 tháng.

Knowles đang mở rộng công suất trên hầu hết các dòng sản phẩm Thiết bị chính xác. Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến đợt bổ sung công suất đầu tiên sẽ đi vào hoạt động vào cuối quý 1/2027, và đạt công suất tối đa trong nửa sau năm 2027. Cho đến lúc đó, phân khúc này đang hoạt động gần như hết công suất.

Mảng Công nghệ y tế & Âm thanh chuyên dụng

Doanh thu mảng Công nghệ y tế & Âm thanh chuyên dụng tăng 4% lên 67 triệu USD. Ban lãnh đạo cho rằng một phần nhu cầu trong quý đến từ việc các khách hàng thuộc lĩnh vực chăm sóc thính lực ra mắt sản phẩm tích hợp AI sớm hơn thường lệ.

Cho năm 2027, ban lãnh đạo dự báo mảng chăm sóc thính lực sẽ tăng trưởng ở mức lịch sử. Tuy nhiên, việc chấm dứt nguồn doanh thu từ mảng dập kim loại có biên lợi nhuận thấp dự kiến sẽ gây áp lực khiến doanh thu phân khúc giảm từ 2% đến 3%, tập trung vào nửa đầu năm. Dù chịu áp lực đó, ban lãnh đạo vẫn kỳ vọng đà tăng trưởng cả năm của phân khúc đạt khoảng 2% đến 4% và cho biết biên lợi nhuận gộp có thể cải thiện khoảng 1 điểm phần trăm so với năm 2026.

Mảng Giải pháp vi mô (Micro Solutions) đã tạo ra khoảng 1 triệu USD doanh thu trong năm 2025 và dự kiến sẽ tiến gần mốc 3 triệu USD vào năm 2026. Ban lãnh đạo nhận thấy triển vọng đạt hơn 5 triệu USD vào năm 2027 và vượt 10 triệu USD vào năm 2028.

Phân bổ vốn và mở rộng biên lợi nhuận

Trong quý 3, Knowles đã mua lại 25 triệu USD cổ phiếu và giảm 15 triệu USD dư nợ vay ngân hàng, trong khi vẫn tiếp tục tài trợ cho đà tăng trưởng tự thân (organic growth).

Ban lãnh đạo cho biết tự động hóa và những cải tiến vận hành đang giúp mở rộng biên lợi nhuận ở mảng màng chuyên dụng Cornell trước đây. Biên lợi nhuận gộp của mảng này là khoảng 27% đến 28% khi được mua lại và dự kiến kết thúc năm 2026 trong khoảng giữa 30%, hướng tới mốc trên 40%.

Công ty cũng đang theo đuổi các thương vụ thâu tóm tiềm năng mà ban lãnh đạo tin rằng có thể bổ trợ cho đà tăng trưởng tự thân, mặc dù chưa có giao dịch cụ thể nào được công bố.

Dự báo của ban lãnh đạo

Tại mức trung vị, doanh thu và EPS quý 4 đều dự kiến tăng 14% so với cùng kỳ năm trước. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết triển vọng EPS phản ánh mức tăng ước tính 20% của EBITDA điều chỉnh, một phần bị bù trừ do không còn khoản lợi ích thuế riêng biệt 0,03 USD đã ghi nhận trong quý 4/2025.

Cho cả năm 2026, Knowles dự kiến doanh thu tăng trưởng 16% tại mức trung vị của khoảng dự báo và EBITDA điều chỉnh tăng 24% so với năm 2025. Chi tiêu vốn cả năm dự kiến chiếm khoảng 5% doanh thu.

Năm 2027, chi tiêu vốn dự kiến sẽ tăng lên mức 5% đến 7% doanh thu khi Knowles mở rộng công suất của mảng Thiết bị chính xác. Ban lãnh đạo kỳ vọng mức tăng trưởng tự thân vẫn duy trì trên các mục tiêu doanh thu đã trình bày tại Ngày hội Nhà đầu tư tháng 5/2025.

Ban lãnh đạo cũng dự kiến biên lợi nhuận gộp hàng năm sẽ cải thiện khoảng 100 điểm cơ bản, nhờ vào chính sách giá, hiệu suất sử dụng công suất và năng suất nhà máy. Đòn bẩy hoạt động bổ sung từ 50 đến 100 điểm cơ bản có thể giúp biên EBITDA điều chỉnh tăng từ mức trên 25% vào cuối năm 2026 lên hướng 30% trong vòng hai đến ba năm.

Rủi ro và các điểm cần theo dõi

• Mảng Thiết bị chính xác đang hoạt động gần sát công suất, điều này có thể hạn chế mức tăng trưởng so với quý trước cho đến khi công suất mới đi vào hoạt động trong năm 2027.
• Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến doanh thu mảng Thiết bị chính xác sẽ đi ngang so với quý trước vào đầu năm 2027 mặc dù tăng trưởng mạnh mẽ so với cùng kỳ năm ngoái.
• Việc chấm dứt doanh thu từ mảng dập kim loại sẽ gây áp lực lên doanh số mảng Công nghệ y tế & Âm thanh chuyên dụng, đặc biệt là trong nửa đầu năm 2027, mặc dù ban lãnh đạo dự kiến tác động đến EBIT là không đáng kể vì mảng kinh doanh này hoạt động theo cơ chế chi phí cộng bù (cost-plus).
• Việc ra mắt các sản phẩm chăm sóc thính lực sớm hơn đã dịch chuyển một phần nhu cầu sang quý 3/2026, làm thay đổi tính mùa vụ thông thường.
• Ban lãnh đạo nhận định thiết bị bán dẫn là một thị trường đầu ra công nghiệp mà tính bền vững của nhu cầu hiện tại chưa thực sự chắc chắn.
• Khả năng có thêm đơn hàng năng lượng tiếp theo là có thể xảy ra, nhưng ban lãnh đạo cảnh báo rằng có thể có một khoảng trống sau khi đơn hàng hiện tại hoàn tất.

Điểm nổi bật trong phiên Q&A với các chuyên gia phân tích

Ban lãnh đạo cho biết tổng doanh thu toàn công ty có thể giảm nhẹ so với quý trước trong quý 1/2027, trong đó ước tính của một nhà phân tích giảm khoảng 1% đến 2% được coi là một giả định hợp lý. Công ty vẫn kỳ vọng mức tăng trưởng mạnh mẽ so với cùng kỳ năm trước, dù mảng Thiết bị chính xác bị hạn chế bởi công suất và mảng Công nghệ y tế & Âm thanh chuyên dụng bị ảnh hưởng bởi việc rút khỏi mảng doanh thu dập kim loại.

Đơn hàng năng lượng đã đạt tối đa công suất và hoạt động đúng như kỳ vọng về sản lượng và biên lợi nhuận. Knowles dự kiến sẽ tiếp tục giao hàng trong 6 đến 7 quý nữa. Ban lãnh đạo xác nhận đã có các cuộc thảo luận về các cơ hội tiếp theo, điều này có thể mang lại động lực tăng trưởng trong năm 2028, 2029 và xa hơn, nhưng chưa đưa ra dự báo đơn hàng chắc chắn.

Về tính bền vững của nhu cầu, ban lãnh đạo cho biết không thấy bằng chứng nào về việc tích trữ hàng tồn kho an toàn đáng kể trên thị trường y tế. Ban lãnh đạo cũng lưu ý rằng các đối tác phân phối không tích trữ hàng tồn kho dư thừa so với mức năm 2022. Nhu cầu quốc phòng có thể tăng tốc trong 12 đến 18 tháng tới theo ban lãnh đạo, trong khi mảng y tế và quốc phòng—bao gồm cả chăm sóc thính lực—chiếm khoảng 60% doanh thu công ty.

Bên cạnh các sản phẩm cốt lõi, Knowles nhấn mạnh mảng Giải pháp vi mô, tụ điện màng công suất xung, bộ suy giảm và cuộn cảm là những yếu tố tiềm năng đóng góp vào việc mở rộng thị trường có thể tiếp cận và phục vụ (SAM). Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến sẽ đưa ra các mục tiêu chi tiết hơn trong năm 2027.

Toàn văn biên bản cuộc họp báo cáo kết quả kinh doanh

Toàn văn cuộc gọi công bố kết quả kinh doanh

Phần trình bày của ban lãnh đạo

Operator

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Third Quarter Knowles Corporation Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand the conference over to Sarah Cook, Vice President of Investor Relations. Sarah, please go ahead.

Sarah Cook

Thank you, and welcome to our third quarter 2026 earnings call. I'm Sarah Cook, Vice President of Investor Relations, and presenting with me today are Jeffrey Niew, our President and CEO; and John Anderson, our Senior Vice President and CFO. Our call today will include remarks about future expectations, plans and prospects for Knowles, which constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under applicable federal securities laws.

Forward-looking statements in this call will include comments about demand for company products, anticipated trends in company sales, expenses and profits and involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause results to differ materially from current expectations. The company urges investors to review the risks and uncertainties in the company's SEC filings, including, but not limited to, the annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, periodic reports filed from time to time with the SEC and the risks and uncertainties identified in today's earnings release.

All forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this call, and Knowles disclaims any duty to update such statements, except as required by law. In addition, pursuant to Reg G, any non-GAAP financial measures referenced during today's conference call can be found in our press release posted on our website at knowles.com and in our current report on Form 8-K filed today with the SEC. This will include a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP measure.

All financial references on this call will be on a non-GAAP continuing operations basis with the exception of cash from operations or unless otherwise indicated. We've made selected financial information available on webcast slides, which can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website. With that, let me turn the call over to Jeff, who will provide details on our results. Jeff?

Jeffrey Niew

Thanks, Sarah, and thanks to all of you for joining us today. To start out, I would like to take a moment to thank the Knowles team for delivering an outstanding third quarter. We had strong performance across our business as demonstrated by our key financial metrics. Revenue was $184 million, up 20% year-over-year and above the high end of our guided range. EPS was $0.38 and cash generated from operations was $45 million, both at the high end of our guided range. These results reflect the strength of our execution and the positive momentum across our business. I believe our results continue to demonstrate that our focus on markets and products where we have significant competitive advantages is paying dividends and positions us well for future growth.

In Q3, MedTech & Specialty Audio revenue was $67 million, up 4% year-over-year. Hearing health OEM customers typically launch new products annually in Q4. This year, however, we believe our customers' new products, which are implementing AI features, drove demand slightly earlier than usual. While this change in seasonality accelerated sales to earlier in the year, we continue to expect the hearing health market to grow at historical rates in 2026.

Precision Devices delivered Q3 revenue of $117 million, up 33% year-over-year with strong demand across every major product line and end market we serve: MedTech, defense, industrial and electrification. Our close collaboration with customers continues to drive a robust pipeline of design wins as customers continue to choose our innovative and differentiated solutions. I believe our year-over-year growth demonstrates the strength of our strategy and the momentum across the business.

On a base of strong revenue growth, orders remained robust. Precision Devices had a book-to-bill of 1.5 in Q3 with broad-based order strength across our key end markets, both among OEMs and with our distribution partners. Q3 orders in the PD segment were nearly $180 million, well above Q2 orders, reinforcing my confidence in continued growth. As noted on the Q2 earnings call, there was a $15 million order early in Q3 for RF filters for a defense customer that will be delivered over the next 36 months.

I will now provide a little more color on the revenue and order strength across our PD end markets. In MedTech, our pulse power film capacitors continue to win in defibrillator and radiotherapy applications, while our ceramic capacitors are securing strong design wins in next-generation medical imaging and implantables. In defense, demand remains strong across all our product categories. Our RF filters, film and ceramic capacitors are in high demand in munitions and communications applications. We also serve a broad range of applications in industrial markets. As an example, our ceramic capacitors and capacitor assemblies are growing in use for plasma generators in semiconductor equipment.

With strong orders, a healthy backlog and continued design wins, we are in the process of adding capacity across most of our Precision Devices product lines to support the demand. I expect this additional capacity to begin to come online in late Q1 with it being fully available in the second half of 2027. Our ability to continue to expand and meet increasing demand for our products is supported by our strong cash generation from operations. We have the ability to invest in growth while returning capital to shareholders and reducing debt.

In the third quarter, we repurchased $25 million in shares and reduced outstanding bank borrowings by $15 million in addition to funding organic growth initiatives. Our strong balance sheet positions us well to support organic growth through disciplined capital investment and still pursue strategic accretive acquisitions.

Before turning the call over to John to cover our financial results and provide our Q4 guidance, I would like to share my initial perspectives on 2027. Our strategy of combining unique technologies to create custom engineered solutions and then quickly ramping them at scale with a world-class operational capability is driving revenue growth in our core products and markets, margin expansion and strong cash flow.

In 2027, as we add capacity, new design wins ramp and we fulfill our healthy backlog within our PD segment and our MSA segment continues to perform at historical growth levels, we expect organic growth to continue to exceed the revenue targets presented at our May 2025 Investor Day. I also believe we will be entering the next phase of revenue growth beyond our core, where we expect to have meaningful expansion of our SAM through the growth initiatives we outlined at our Investor Day.

By following the same playbook we used in our core of investing in innovative technologies, using these technologies to develop customized solutions to solve our customers' problems and then scaling into high-volume production, we expect 3 fundamental paths to supplementing our core growth. First, we are developing new products such as attenuators and inductors for our existing markets. This is a great opportunity to provide a wider array of solutions to the markets and customers we already serve.

Second, we are utilizing existing technologies and capabilities for new customers and markets as we are doing with our [ Micro Solutions ] group and with pulse power capacitors. The breadth of opportunities we are pursuing that leverage our core competencies continues to expand with limited expansion of OPEX to support this new business. Lastly, we are seeing the opportunity to meaningfully grow content with existing products and technology at current customers as we have discussed in hearing health and with integrated capacitor solutions.

All these initiatives are expected to meaningfully expand our SAM, will complement our strong core, and I look forward to providing a more detailed outlook and updates on these initiatives and others in 2027. Now let me turn the call over to John for our financial results and our Q4 guidance.

John Anderson

Thanks, Jeff. We reported third quarter revenues of $184 million, up 20% from the year-ago period and above the high end of our guidance range. EPS was $0.38 in the quarter, up $0.05 or 15% from the year-ago period and at the high end of our guidance range. Cash provided by operating activities was $45 million, also at the high end of our guidance range.

In the MedTech & Specialty Audio segment, Q3 revenue was $67 million, up 4% compared with the year-ago period. Gross margins were 51.9%. The Precision Devices segment delivered third quarter revenues of $117 million, up 33% from the year-ago period. Increased demand from both OEM customers and our distribution channel partners resulted in strong growth in the 4 major markets we serve: MedTech, defense, industrial and electrification. Segment gross margins were 41.6%, up 10 basis points from the third quarter of 2025 on higher volume, partially offset by unfavorable inventory adjustments.

On a total company basis, R&D expense in the quarter was $10 million, up $1 million compared to Q3 2025 on higher project spending in both MSA and PD segments. SG&A expenses were $30 million, up $4 million from prior year levels, driven primarily by higher sales commissions, higher incentive compensation expense and increased headcount as we pulled forward hiring primarily to support increased customer demand and new product initiatives. Interest expense for the quarter was $1.6 million, down $700,000 from the third quarter of 2025 due to lower average debt balances.

Now I'll turn to our balance sheet and cash flow. In the third quarter, we generated $45 million in cash from operating activities and capital spending was $7 million. During the third quarter, we repurchased 695,000 shares at a total cost of $25 million. We exited the quarter with cash of $47 million and $116 million of borrowings under our revolving credit facility. Lastly, our net leverage ratio based on trailing 12 months adjusted EBITDA was 0.4x, and we have liquidity of more than $330 million as measured by cash plus unused capacity under our revolving credit facility.

Moving to our Q4 guidance. For the fourth quarter of 2026, revenues are expected to be between $180 million and $190 million, up 14% year-over-year at the midpoint. R&D expenses are expected to be between $10 million and $12 million. Selling and administrative expenses are expected to be within the range of $29 million to $31 million. We're projecting adjusted EBIT margin for the quarter to be within the range of 23% to 25%. Interest expense in Q4 is estimated at $1.5 million, and we expect an effective tax rate of 15% to 19%.

We're projecting EPS to be within the range of $0.39 to $0.43 per share, up $0.05 or 14% year-over-year at the midpoint, driven by a 20% increase in adjusted EBITDA, partially offset by the absence of a $0.03 discrete tax benefit, which was included in Q4 2025. This assumes weighted average shares outstanding during the quarter of 87 million on a fully diluted basis.

We're projecting cash from operating activities to be within the range of $60 million to $70 million. Capital spending is expected to be $8 million. We expect full year capital spending to be approximately 5% of revenues. Looking ahead, we expect capital spending to be above our historic range of 3% to 5%, increasing to 5% to 7% of revenues in 2027 as we continue to make investments in capacity to support increased customer demand in the Precision Devices segment.

The strong growth and financial results we've achieved through the first 3 quarters of '26, combined with a robust backlog and increased order activity, give me confidence in our ability to deliver 2026 revenue growth of 16% at the midpoint of our guidance range and adjusted EBITDA growth of 24% over 2025 levels, with both metrics well above the high end of the target ranges that we provided at our May 2025 Investor Day.

I'll now turn the call back over to the operator for the Q&A portion of our call.

Operator?

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question is from the line of Anthony Stoss with Craig-Hallum.

Phần hỏi đáp

Anthony Stoss

Congrats again on just solid and continued execution. Jeff, I'd love to hear your thoughts. You gave a little bit of a preamble on 2027. Maybe you can expand on that a little bit in terms of order visibility kind of entering into the first half of 2027. Then I have a couple of follow-ups.

Jeffrey Niew

Yes. So let me just say at a top level, if you look sector by sector or market by market that we're in, what we're seeing is just extremely high design activity. And whether it be for faster, more precision, getting more output, new innovative features, all the applications we're involved in, people are asking for more customized stuff. It's a trend that we're just clearly seeing now. And our product portfolio is well positioned to take advantage of this. I mean it's very well positioned.

Now to take it to '27, let me break it down by the segments, right? First, MSA. MSA, we expect next year, the hearing health business is going to perform at historical levels again. We will have a little bit of a headwind, I'd say, primarily in the first half. I think we mentioned this before on stamping that we had this -- when we sold the consumer business, we have a supplier. We're at the last time buy at the end of this year. There'll be no revenue, and that's about a headwind of about 2% to 3% next year, especially more in the first half, I would say, than the back half. But the Micro Solutions business, as we talked about, should start accelerating in the back half. So overall, we'll still probably be in that 2% to 4% for the full year, although it might be down a little bit in the first half.

Now PD, let's say, the book-to-bill, again, in the second quarter was very strong. But the orders we're taking now, it was 1.5 in Q3. The orders we're taking in Q3 are already being scheduled into the first half of next year. But we are at a point where we are pretty close to capacity constraint. So while we're going to have very strong year-over-year growth in the first half with PD, I think sequentially, it's going to be relatively flat because of capacity constraints.

And so I think that's probably the one thing. And one thing I think on -- just to be clear on the MSA thing, yes, it may be a little bit of a headwind to stamping. But remember that stamping was on a cost-plus basis. It doesn't generate a lot of EBIT. So it won't affect the EBIT and the margin should be better.

John Anderson

Yes. I think gross margins, Tony, this year, we've talked about kind of for MSA in that low 50% range, and expect that maybe a little 1% or so higher in '27 over '26.

Jeffrey Niew

So bottom line is on this, we expect strong year-over-year growth in the first half. But sequentially, it's probably going to be -- especially in the first quarter, might be slightly down, like PD being flat sequentially because of capacity constraints with MSA being slightly down.

Anthony Stoss

Just to be clear, and maybe this is a better question for John. Last year, it seems like seasonal, your March quarter was typically down 5% sequentially. Are you saying it's only going to be down a little bit, like 1%, 2% sequentially?

Jeffrey Niew

I think that's a fair guess, somewhere in that -- it's slightly down sequentially based on the guide that we have...

John Anderson

Tony, were you talking about the MSA segment or total Knowles?

Anthony Stoss

Total Knowles.

Jeffrey Niew

Yes. It will be down slightly sequentially, but still, if you look at the year-over-year number, it's way up. And again, MSA being slightly down, right, because of the stamping business going away, PD being flat capacity constrained because we're pretty much running all out.

Anthony Stoss

Got it. No, it's a good problem to have. And then my last question, Jeff, I'd love to hear kind of an update on the energy order, the trajectory and what you're seeing from that customer.

Jeffrey Niew

Yes. I mean the business is fully ramped. We're outputting like as expected. And so now we've got about 6, 7 more quarters of delivery of this order. I think if I look at the numbers, it's performing in terms of the margins and the output as expected. I really put -- I really call out to the team. I mean this was like a Herculean effort to ramp with this speed and this amount of volume, but it's going very well.

Operator

Your next question is from the line of Christopher Rolland with Susquehanna.

Christopher Rolland

Mine is around looking at Knowles kind of through the cycle here. I think everybody is benefiting from the cycle, longer lead times, longer bookings, people worrying about short capacity and perhaps even safety stock building. How much do you think this is a part of your business? Or conversely, do you think what we're seeing here is really more representative of something through cycle? Maybe if you could put the larger picture in focus for us.

Jeffrey Niew

So let me just first say based on the markets. If I think about the markets that we participate in, and I think I said this, in medical, I do not see that there's safety stock or that this is going to grow through a cycle. We've got a lot of great new design wins. I think it's sustainable. We're not seeing in medical that there's a concern here.

Then I go to defense, I would argue that there's probably an opportunity for an acceleration from even where we are in terms of defense in the next 12 to 18 months as budgets around the world are increasing for both the U.S. as well as allies, the replacement of munitions, there's a lot of things going on here that says that this is going to continue to maybe even accelerate. And so that's about 60% of our business or so right there as a company.

Electrification is what it is, and is -- I would say, we still expect growth next year. We have some EV business. We expect that to be up again next year. We've got a lot of great design wins as well as the energy order. I don't see a lot of concerns there. So it really comes back down to industrial. And if you look at it, there are some pockets here where I would sit there and say, okay, maybe this isn't sustainable, like semiconductor equipment, how long will that last?

But we are not really overly reliant on one market. And I can tell you, when I look at our distribution partners, they do not have a lot of inventory. They're not holding excess inventory like we saw happen in '22. And I think this goes back to kind of the discussion of what's different between back then and '22. In '22, we had lead times of 15 weeks and some of the competitors, like say, ceramic capacitor guys had 60-week lead times. Our lead times are now long, not driven by AI. They're driven by our demand in our core markets. And so I think, generally speaking, we're going to be pretty good going forward through the cycle.

John Anderson

Chris, just to clarify, too, that Jeff mentioned roughly 60% of our business is Med and defense and Med includes the hearing health business.

Christopher Rolland

Yes. Yes. Okay. Perfect. And then as I look at some of the implied fourth quarter stuff around gross margin, it looks like that's up nicely. Maybe any puts and takes into next year as well, that would be appreciated.

John Anderson

Chris, you're right. I mean in terms of gross margin, if you kind of take the guidance, the components of the guidance that I gave, you can back into gross margin, and it's just above 46% at the midpoint of the guidance that I gave. I think there's room to continue to expand gross margins. Our target is 100 basis points a year. But kind of exiting this year, again, the guidance I provided is just a touch above 46%, but there is room to increase that next year.

Jeffrey Niew

Yes. I would just add one more thing, Chris, on that, as I'm kind of looking at the numbers here. I think we're going to exit above -- well above 25% on EBITDA margins this year. And I think John said this before, but I mean, we clearly see the path over the midterm now to get to 30% EBITDA margins.

John Anderson

Yes. If you take what I said, the gross margin alone, we think there's 100 basis points of improvement annually. And then we're going to get operating leverage of 50 to 100 basis points with the growth that we have. So yes, you can see a path there within 2 to 3 years going from where we are just a little north of 25% this year to 30%.

Operator

Your next question is from the line of Tristan Gerra with Baird.

Tyler Bomba

This is Tyler Bomba on for Tristan. Looking into 2027, could you give us a sense of which of the newer growth platforms that you outlined in the prepared remarks are closest to contributing meaningful revenue? Are you starting to get production orders that give you better visibility on the timing across those different platforms?

Jeffrey Niew

Yes. So here's what I'd say is I'll give you a little bit of color on this, but I think this is going to be a great topic for an Investor Day sometime next year, right, as we kind of move forward. But let me kind of talk about it a little bit.

First, I'd say if you look at our Micro Solutions group from MSA, we really have now a list as long as my arm of opportunities. We're really starting to actually have to kind of push back on customers. We talked about this. We had about $1 million worth of revenue in 2025. We'll have $2 million to $3 million, probably going to closer to $3 million this year. I see a clear path north of $5 million next year. And then if you look in '28, it should be north of $10 million and maybe even more. And so I'd say that one is really coming along well.

I would sit there and say the pulse power opportunity, it's a matter now of really of our execution. There are so many new applications, whether it be downhole applications, there's all different types of things in terms of even beyond the energy that we've discussed kind of a lot. So I think -- and that's ready to go. And I mean, it's a question of when the customers will start ordering in some of these new applications.

I'm really encouraged. I mean, like we have not talked about this at all. We introduced a line of attenuators, now this is primarily for defense, takes some time, but super encouraged by the initial reaction we're getting from attenuators. I'm super encouraged by inductors. So a lot of good stuff coming here.

I think I would just say this, what we're seeing is a meaningful expansion of our SAM with all these things we're doing beyond the core that will supplement that growth. And that's why we're feeling more and more compelled to kind of call that out. I think we'll raise some numbers around that probably sometime in the new year.

Tyler Bomba

Great. Well, looking forward to that. With -- for my follow-up, with the energy order now fully ramped, are you seeing discussions around follow-on orders or similar applications with different customers that could sustain growth beyond this initial $75 million order?

Jeffrey Niew

Let me give you the short answer. Yes. Let me give you a little more color, a little bit longer answer. I think we're still 6 to 7 quarters out from completing this order. I think there's a possibility that we get another order like that follows right on, but there may be a small gap. I think from my perspective, we have so many growth opportunities that are even beyond this energy order. I think not that I don't want to focus on this because this could be a big upside to our numbers in '28, '29 and beyond. But I mean, it's a great opportunity for us. And hopefully, we'll -- as we get further along in delivering this order, we'll be able to talk more about what the next -- what comes beyond.

Operator

Your next question is from the line of Bob Labick with CJS.

Bob Labick

Congratulations on really strong results. Also exciting news that you're adding capacity here due to all the demand and that you're kind of bumping up. And obviously, we've talked about the energy order on the call already. You've stood up a fully automated production facility recently kind of state-of-the-art for this energy order. What have you learned from that process? And how can you apply that to the incremental capacity you want to add and also just other Knowles facilities already in the footprint of manufacturing?

Jeffrey Niew

I mean that's a great question, Bob. I think what we've learned from the whole ramp-up of this automation is that we have a lot of margin expansion opportunity within that factory. I think that's what we've learned. I think part of that, John has kind of alluded to that within the Cornell, former Cornell business, that we acquired, the specialty film business, we think there are great opportunities for margin expansion.

I don't know if it applies as much because we really are applying these kind of learnings to every one of our facilities as we go along. But for sure, in this area, we're going to be adding more automation in order to improve yields, lower our overhead and make the Cornell business more profitable.

I think we've alluded to this when we bought that business. It was in the 27%, 28% gross margin. It's exiting the year in the mid-30s now with a clear path above 40%. And so we're seeing all the things that we expected from that. I think what we're hoping is we can find another acquisition that is a 1 plus 1 equals 3 and be a real home run that is like another Cornell over the next year or two that really makes sense for us.

Bob Labick

And then obviously, you gave a nice initial look to 2027. And in general, in the economy and kind of the macro, there's obviously a lot of inflationary pressures right now. How is Knowles positioned based on the kind of current inflationary market? And how would this project into 2027 for you, if at all?

Jeffrey Niew

I think we're positioned very well. I think just to state, first off, we have an excellent operations team globally that focus on value creation every year. So they're looking for ways to reduce costs, reduce -- improve yields. We have that going on. That's an ongoing thing.

I think we've alluded to this. I think the pricing environment is positive and the direction we're heading with the customers with. Generally speaking, we are a critical piece of the bill of materials, but we're not an overly large portion of our bill of materials to our customers. And so moderate pricing every year increases are pretty much what we do.

I wouldn't say we do it with every customer across every single segment, but we are looking at this on a continual basis. And I think, generally speaking, we're in a very good position to be able to handle inflationary pressures. I don't know...

John Anderson

Yes. Bob, just to add to that. I mean, I talked about the potential to increase gross margins 100 basis points. The levers are really price, capacity utilization and productivity on the factory floor. Those are the 3 components. And there's a piece of both of those that will benefit us in 2027.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.